On Friday August 28, we left the house at 4:30 PM to meet up at the church for a 3 day trip to Grayson for BP'ing. About 4:25 it started raining. I don't mean a sprinkle either: I mean a full on "gully washer". The kind that moves mountains and floods fields. At the church, we had to load up the gear for some folks who were doing a family camp and day hiking. 3 groups of Scouts (2 older and one younger) were BP'ing along different routes on Saturday and all meeting up in the Thomas Knob area Saturday night. 2 groups were exchanging keys and reversing the routes Saturday. As we started towards VA, the skies miraculously began to clear somewhat and by the time we arrived at the Backpacker parking spot at 7:20 PM, the moon was even starting to show. We hiked up the spur trail and set up about a mile in at the intersection of the AT. Sometime after midnight, I awoke to the sound of rain gently falling on the tent. It was much cooler than I expected but the rain sounded sweet tapping on the fly. We all woke at 7 AM and fixed a quick breakfast and packed up the wet gear. Our itinerary called for us to head North on the AT, through Scales and up the Crest Trail. Then intersecting with the AT South and heading to Thomas Knob. We made great time even though I was stopping every 5 minutes and eating a handful or two of the wild blueberries that adorn this place.
We got through the Scales are by 11 AM and decided to head on up the Crest trail to a water refill spot. As we were refilling water and eating our lunch, the rain began to fall again. Not so hard but just enough to be annoying. About 1 PM the sun came back out and we arrived at Rhododendron Gap where the AT intersect 3 different trails. We climbed up on the rocks and looked at views, played with the wild ponies and just sit in the warm sun for a while. We also watched a large bird (either Golden Eagle or large hawk as he would never get close enough) soar in the wind. We started out towards Thomas Knob so we could get dibs on the best site in the area. We hadn't seen a great deal of hikers other than a few solo's and a few couples. Seemed like everyone was day hiking. We hit the campsite around 2 PM and it was vacant. YES!!! We set up the tents and the boys headed out to climb a few more rocks and play in the meadows. About 3, our second group arrived and set up and 30 minutes later, the 3rd groups was there. After all the tents were set-up, we all walked down to the water source and pumped some spring water for the evening. Several of the adults and a couple boys wanted to say they had hiked to the tallest spot in VA. I told them there were no views on Mt. Rogers but it was a pretty trail nonetheless. So we hiked up to the top and took a picture or 2.
Just as we started back down, the rain started again. At first it seemed like another short drizzle. But by the time we had walked back to camp, it was coming down in buckets. Luckily, I had brought my tarp for cooking just in case this happened. We all crammed in under 2 tarps, cooked our meals and waited out the rain. Finally about 7, it stopped and 2 or 3 very enterprising adults even got a fire started. By 10 PM, all were in their tents dry and happy. I always sleep light when Scout camping because I feel responsible for everyone. I got up at 12Am and walked out to see a moon visible in the sky and only a few clouds. The evening was cool, even bordering on cold. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. Some of the young Scouts had decided to make pancakes with Blueberries. They were very good and the boys did a great job working together to cook. The sun was out, it was warming up to perfect and I hated to leave. But life starts again on Monday and we had to go. So, we packed up wet gear again and headed out to Grindstone about 6 miles away. There we picked up some cars and drove back to the rendezvous point. Life sure is sweet!!!
